Ecampus Support of Black Lives Matter

To our Ecampus students, faculty, colleagues and online learning community:

We, in Ecampus, stand united in our commitment to foster diversity, equity and inclusivity. Racism of any form is unacceptable. On June 4, 2020, we observed nine minutes of silence as a division in honor of George Floyd and countless other Black people who have been unjustly killed before him. These recent events have ignited in us a stronger sense of urgency to learn more and do more to fight racial injustice.

It is important to recognize that we can all learn and change our behavior to address inequality and work against systemic racism. Through self-reflection, conversations with friends, family and co-workers, and leading from your own sphere of influence, we support your journey to move the needle in the right direction.

Recently, we have supported Black Lives Matter and people of color in these ways:

• Prioritizing development of a Strategic Plan of Inclusive Excellence in partnership with our Office of Institutional Diversity (OID). Our steering committee was formed and launched in August, and will have a draft plan in place early in 2021.
• Supporting staff and units in Ecampus to participate in training sessions with OID and engage in other professional development to better understand how and where they can learn and can impact change.
• Fostering an inclusive climate in online classes: In 2019-20, the Ecampus course development and training team launched inclusive teaching online workshops that are designed to help faculty reach and support students with diverse identities, backgrounds and needs in their online courses.

Future actions underway in 2020-21 include:

• Supporting Black-owned businesses through partnership exploration with our Corporate Education Unit.
• Creating a more intentional recruitment and student success plan to support our Black students and close the equity gap. Getting inspiration to do so from our Tribal Communities Initiative.
• Updating our 2020-22 Ecampus Strategic Goals to include a new, more impactful, division-wide DEI goal.

The above actions lie in the foreseeable future, but we stand in solidarity in our long-term commitment to support Black Lives Matter, and break down barriers within our control to improve racial justice.

— The Ecampus leadership team